


To Love is to Endure

by echoicdreamscape



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Rise of Kyoshi, The Shadow of Kyoshi
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Kyoshi is the sweetest, Rangi is elitist, but we still love her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29014671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/echoicdreamscape/pseuds/echoicdreamscape
Summary: Snapshots of Rangi's experiences with love spanning her childhood to young adulthood.
Relationships: Kyoshi/Rangi (Avatar)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 111





	To Love is to Endure

To Sei’naka women, affection is yelling. Love is criticism.

The first time Rangi firebends is a complete accident. She’s four years old, standing on her tippy toes, trying to reach the fire flakes hidden in the cabinet. Behind her, her parents pay no attention as they discuss politics or some other boring topic and she’s too proud even at that tender age to ask for help. The snack remains out of reach, even when she jumps with all her power. 

The girl’s feet smack the ground when she lands and she balls her fists and scrunches her eyebrows in righteous fury. She feels an energy rising in her, a kind she’s felt before, but never to this level. It travels from deep in her belly up to her arms and down to her hands. 

“Stupid fire flakes!” she yells. “I don’t want you anyway!” She points dramatically at the cabinet to emphasize her last word and yelps, jerking backwards in fear when a stream of fire erupts from her index finger toward the obstinate cabinet and disappears harmlessly within seconds. Rangi stands absolutely still and prays to the Spirits that her parents were so engaged in their conversation that they didn’t notice the burst of flame in their house. 

“RANGI SEI’NAKA!” The young girl gulps and turns around slowly with her head sinking, ready to face her punishment. She briefly sees the proud look in her father’s eyes as if they say _as expected of my child_ before inhaling deeply and glancing up at her mother.

Hei-Ran’s expression is unreadable, but there is a gleam in her eyes. “Drop into a wider stance at once, young lady!” her mother orders. Rangi immediately obeys and wobbles as her undeveloped leg muscles strain. “You won’t be producing a mediocre flame like that again!”

Rangi’s father dies two months after that incident. She remembers the streams running down her face as she kneels to hear his final words to her. He whispers, “I am so proud of you, Rangi. Take care of your mother for me.” His golden eyes gleam with pride and grief.

But Rangi remembers even more profoundly the way some light seemed to leave her mother’s bronze eyes after her father passed. Gone was the man who lit up the house with his humor and easy affection. Gone was the one who softened her mother’s verbal blows and held Rangi before she went to bed. If this is what happens when love ends, she thinks as she hears her mother’s muffled sobs down the hallway, if love is strong enough to crush even the toughest person she knows, she’s not quite sure if it’s something she wants for herself.

One morning when she’s eight, she sees her mother wistfully staring at the family portrait. Rangi misses her father too, but she’s afraid to say it, lest she show any weakness in front of the Headmistress of the Royal Fire Academy for Girls.

“I haven’t stopped loving him.” Rangi startles and turns the corner she’s been hiding behind to reveal herself. How had her mother discovered her when she was personally trained to make silent footsteps? Hei-Ran smiles sadly. “I know you still love him, too, Rangi.”

Tears well up uncontrollably and Rangi tries to shove them down. “It’s okay to cry,” her mother begins, approaching her slowly. Rangi hides her face in her hands, ashamed. “Sadness teaches us that we once had great happiness in our lives.” Her mother puts a hand on her head, not quite reaching the topknot Rangi has worn for four years. “That’s why life is worth living. I know one day you, too, will find someone who makes you the happiest you’ve ever felt.”

* * *

Rangi has always known she’s liked girls. Same-sex and same-gender attraction aren’t an issue in the Fire Nation. However, she knows that as a descendant of a noble clan, she’s expected to marry another noble-or even someone of higher status-in order to consolidate Sei’naka’s power. It’s too early, though, when she’s approaching thirteen, to think about that. She’s never doubted her attraction, although she hasn’t had many chances to act on it. Yet.

There’s a girl-a soldier-from a branch of the Keohso clan who won’t stop looking at her. Rangi knows the girl thinks she’s being sneaky when she steals glances during formations, at the mess hall, during didactic instruction. Rangi doesn’t know her name but she doesn’t much care when the others are simply competition. 

Still, this girl trails her. Follows her from ten feet behind. Stares at her from her group of friends to where Rangi sits alone.

One day, she becomes fed up. She makes sure to walk to a secluded part of the training compound, knowing the girl is following her. The second they turn the corner, she presses her forearm against the other girl’s collarbone and leans in close. The girl draws a sharp breath and doesn’t meet her eyes even though she’s only two inches shorter. Rangi pays no attention to what the other girl is actually looking at.

“What’s your problem with me?” Rangi utters, voice deep, glaring at her. She’s had enough looks and whispers at the Academy and had hoped they wouldn’t follow her to the Junior Corps.

The other girl flushes. Well, that’s unexpected. The girl’s eyes trail down to…what’s she looking at? But then they meet her own eyes and Rangi sees something she hasn’t before. Something she likes.

Rangi is good at almost anything with which she wants to have proficiency. Kissing girls is no exception. She finds that the gossip that had followed her around at the Academy holds less weight in the Fire Army, and other girls no longer avoid her. She starts tentatively with Hua-she finally knows her name after these couple months. Rangi likes having someone interested in her, although they keep their liaisons secret. Fraternizing within the Fire Army is not forbidden, but she knows officers who become distracted don’t get promoted. Besides, she thinks, she’s not planning to find her future wife here; even she, a future elite soldier, is interested in exploring her new physical desires.

They steal shy kisses at first, a couple of exploratory pecks here and there late in the afternoon after training or at night. Rangi likes the way Hua holds herself against her, the way she sighs into her mouth. Rangi likes even more the way Hua looks at her when she takes control and presses her into the wall, like that time they first spoke. But it doesn’t last longer than a couple of weeks. Hua takes a leave of absence from the army when her clan disputes with the main Keohso house. Rangi shrugs it off. She doesn’t have a strong attachment to the other girl and she’s used to being left behind at this point. 

Over two years there’s also Yue-Wan, who is cruel to Rangi during the day but melts in her hands in the evening. Kwan has to have a hand over her mouth when Rangi bites down on her collarbone. Mayumi is the only one who makes Rangi blush, especially when she pulls her down on top of her in the barracks. Mayumi is from the high-ranking Isa clan. She stands taller than Rangi with shiny black hair Rangi sometimes fantasizes about running her hands through. Of course she doesn’t, but sometimes the way Mayumi smiles at her makes her stomach flutter. Sometimes she thinks about more. Getting to know her more, getting more experience, but-. Eventually, they decide to break off their dalliances when they fear they may be caught. A Sei’naka and an Isa, Mayumi’s family would be ashamed. 

But dalliances are all they are. Rangi never takes a girl to bed, nor does she have much interest in doing so. Fire Nationals marry for love, and Rangi is traditional enough that she won’t share that experience with anyone until she finds it.

* * *

Rangi is fourteen when she arrives with her mother in Yokoya. She has pushed herself to her limits (with not a scar to show for it) and graduated early from the Junior Corps. She is to have the great honor of being the Avatar’s bodyguard while her mother serves as his firebending instructor. They walk up the path to the mansion, both holding perfect, straight posture. They do not converse as they take in the sights, both analyzing the Earth Kingdom peninsula with their military training. Rangi frowns when she hears whispers coming from behind the front gate.

“Late again, that Kyoshi.”

“Why do they bother keeping her around? Can’t even deliver groceries on time.”

“Filthy slum-” The voices break off suddenly.

Rangi doesn’t hear the footsteps behind her and flinches slightly when a large green figure with flowing brown hair hurriedly steps past her. Her mother gives her a quick, sharp glare at being caught unawares. Rangi doesn’t miss the limp the person is trying to hide nor the bruise on her cheek as she carries five bursting sacks of groceries past the gate. She wonders how a teenage girl can be strong enough to carry so much weight. Even she, whose muscles are well-developed and used to strain, would not be able to handle the load. 

A man with a cold smile greets Rangi and her mother at the gate. “I’m sorry you had to see that,” he says casually. “Some of our servants have to learn more discipline.” He bows. “Perhaps the presence of two firebenders will whip them into shape.”

Hei-Ran’s smile is as artificial as his. “Where is the master of this house?” she asks, ignoring his remark. The man keeps his smile starchily pressed on his face as he bows again to retrieve someone.

Rangi stands five feet behind her mother’s right shoulder to show deference and respect while she evaluates the compound, searching for entry and exit points, fortifications, and hidden passages. She exhales through her nose when she realizes that it’s vulnerable to attacks from all sides. Looks like her job as the Avatar’s bodyguard will require extreme diligence. Her specialty. 

A middle aged man wearing Gan Jin robes approaches with two teens trailing behind him. Rangi stands at attention behind her mother after noticing the boy. This must be the Avatar. Her attention does not waver from him while her mother and the man-Jianzhu, she hears her mother call him-exchange pleasantries.

“Ah, you must be Rangi,” Jianzhu exclaims, peering down at her. “I’ve heard exceptional things about you.” Rangi glances at her mother, receiving a steely glare in response. “This is Yun, the Avatar.” Yun steps forward with a charming smile and greets her with a handshake. 

Rangi bows deeply. “It is an honor to meet the Avatar,” she begins. “I will dedicate my life to serve and protect you.” Yun looks simultaneously taken aback and pleased.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know you more, Rangi,” he says with a wink. Rangi hides a frown as Jianzhu introduces the other person standing in the back who seems like she’s trying to hide, although she towers over all of them.

Rangi doesn’t have to notice the bruise on her cheek to know she’s the servant who had rushed past them earlier. 

“This is Kyoshi,” Jianzhu says. Rangi notices the lack of care in his voice. So this is a perfunctory introduction. “She picks up after the Avatar.” Kyoshi continues staring at the ground, beads of sweat dripping down her high cheekbones, unable to handle the intensity from two firebenders on top of the master of the mansion. 

“Who hurt you?” she asks the tall girl hours later when the teens are left to their own devices after dinner. They sit on a bench together in the garden. Yun has disappeared to read some scrolls. “Avatar duty never stops!” he had proclaimed as he hopped up from his sitting position on the ground. He then paused. “Although bodyguard duty can stop for tonight.” With a roguish smile, he had strolled away.

The servant girl barely makes eye contact with her. She mumbles something unintelligible.

“Speak!” Rangi orders. She needs to ensure the safety and honor of the Avatar. Those who harm his servants insult him as well.

“N-no one,” Kyoshi tucks a strand of brown hair behind her ear. “I fell.”

The firebender glowers. “So that’s how you ended up with a bruise on your left cheek and a limp in your right leg?” When Kyoshi says no more, Rangi decides that it’s not too much extra work to protect her too. After all, part of serving the Avatar is looking after his people, as well.

* * *

Controlling one’s breathing is the core of firebending. Without mastery over one’s breathing and emotions, the flames are unpredictable and escape a firebender’s will. Rangi learned long ago how to wear a mask and appear untouchable. She is proficient at suppressing not just her pain, but also her positive emotions. She cries silently, she hides her smiles behind her hands, and she brings an air of seriousness wherever she goes. But like most Fire Nationals, the intensity of her emotions tends to burst out and emerges, usually as rage. Not always, though.

Yun has invented a new game he probably calls “Push Rangi to the Breaking Point.” He seems to play it almost every day, and Rangi usually maintains her calm. Usually.

Yun, Kyoshi, and Rangi sit in the Avatar’s chambers, scrolls cast aside every which way around them. Rangi knows that Kyoshi will have them stacked neatly before the end of the night. 

“Rangi, as my bodyguard, you would do anything for me, right?” If Rangi didn’t know better, she’d say Yun flutters his eyelashes at her. Kyoshi looks at them both, simultaneously confused and amused.

“Of course. Your wish is my command,” Rangi replies with sincerity. If she lets herself get flustered, Yun will just stack on more ridiculousness as he has in the past few months. 

“ _Any wish?_ ” 

Rangi narrows her eyes. “Yes, Yun.” She doesn’t call him Avatar in private moments like these. 

Yun looks gleeful as he turns to the tall girl who has remained silent, but has watched their interaction with fondness. “What do you say, Kyoshi? What should we have Rangi do?”

Kyoshi isn’t known to smirk. Her smiles are always soft, like the rest of her. “Oh I don’t know, Yun. What did you have in mind?” She looks over at Rangi, that hint of a smirk dancing on her lips. Rangi crosses her arms.

“As your Avatar, I order you to stay still.” Yun doesn’t bother to bring authority to his voice. Rangi growls through her clenched teeth but does as he says. 

“Get her!” he yells suddenly.

The firebender continues as ordered and sits as still as a boulder, her arm muscles clenched so tight in their crossed state she may end up in that position forever. Yun and Kyoshi reach under the hidden compartments in the floorboards and jump up. Rangi prepares for the worst as the other two start flinging small, brown projectiles at her with exclamations of mirth.

“Wha-?”

Instead of feeling any pain, Rangi barely notices any sensations as she is pelted with…stalknose mushrooms? She flings her head up to look at Yun, whose face is lit up with delight. The same expression is matched on Kyoshi’s freckled face. 

“I heard these are your favorite, so I asked Kyoshi to buy some in the market today!” Yun exclaims. 

“Am I supposed to eat something that’s been thrown at me and then left on the ground?!” Rangi shouts back. Her two friends turn to each other and break out into boisterous laughter.

“As if they don’t already grow in poop!” Yun manages to chortle out.

Friends. Rangi has never had friends before. But as she looks at the two of them, she thinks that there’s nothing she wouldn’t do for them. She knows at her core that their unlikely trio will all be together for life, through all the good times and the bad ones, too. 

Yun and Kyoshi’s faces quickly fall as they look at her once more, their laughing fit over. They suddenly look concerned. “What’s wrong?”

The firebender furrows her brow. “Nothing?” 

It isn’t until a couple seconds later that Rangi notices the tears slowly dripping down her face.

* * *

Rangi is fifteen when she realizes she has her first real crush. Mayumi was…something…but this is _more_. She has to force herself to tear her eyes away when Kyoshi walks by. Rangi is briefly reminded of the looks Hua used to steal back in the Junior Corps. She thinks about the times she was stopped mid-sprint by her mother and the others. Was she that obvious? Were those knowing glances from Yun the other day? She can’t accost him. Her job as the Avatar’s bodyguard is to protect him. Her life belongs to him. She is not in the place to accuse, yell at, or attack the Avatar in any way.

The firebender pinches her nose in frustration, her other arm holding her knees in place as she sits on the floor in her quarters. What would her mother, her clan, her country think of her if they found out she had feelings for an _earthbender_? Even worse, a servant with nothing to her name. A nobody. How could she be attracted to someone so far beneath her? How could someone so tall have such little standing? 

Rangi scrunches her face in anger and shame and punches the floor, sparks flying harmlessly across the wooden slats. How could she think of her friend like that? Her dear friend who had endured abandonment, starvation, and bullying but who still was the gentlest, kindest, person she had ever met. Her friend, who already thought nothing of herself, who tried to mask her presence almost everywhere she went. Her friend, whose emerald eyes sparkled in the sun, whose freckles were so damn adorable she wanted to press kisses every single one, whose-

Rangi lets herself slide down until she’s lying flat on the floor. She sighs and rests her hands on her stomach as she stares at the ceiling. She can’t let herself get carried away, not again.

* * *

Rangi is sixteen when she feels the greatest pain in her life, even worse than the forced isolation at the Academy, even worse than losing her father. She’s in love with someone who loves another. Rangi sees the way Kyoshi and Yun smile at each other when they think no one is watching. She notices the way their hands sometimes brush. Worst of all, Rangi knows about that time that Yun had his head in her lap and Kyoshi had gazed at him with such affection, their faces coming closer together, that Rangi had to run away while hearing her heart thudding in her chest. 

Rangi shuts her eyes tightly, as if the action could erase the memory completely. She curls on her side into a tight ball and pulls the bedsheets up until they reach her eyes. Her heart clenches and she almost worries that some assassin has shoved a knife into her chest. Love, she thinks, is the worst thing that has ever happened to her. She lets the tears fall down the side of her face and sniffles quietly. She had learned to cry as silently as possible when she had entered the Academy. It’s a useful skill to have nowadays. 

The next morning, Rangi absentmindedly watches her mother examine Yun’s firebending forms. Her eyes are tired, her cheeks are blotted with a light pink rash from her tears, and her mind is everywhere but here. She doesn’t even notice the large man approach and sit beside her.

“Now that’s a look I’ve seen many times,” a gentle, deep voice says. “I know something about unrequited love.” The man tosses a few leaves into the air and watches them swirl down. Rangi absolutely does not recoil in surprise.

She glares at Kelsang and keeps her mouth shut. Her personal life is none of his business. Especially when he’s the father figure of the one she…she-Rangi flushes scarlet and hope he doesn’t notice.

Kelsang is deft enough to keep his eyes carefully on Hei-Ran and Yun in the courtyard. “Kuruk was in a similar position, once.” A small smile appears on the airbender’s face as he reminisces about his friend. “I had to watch him pine for so many years…” His smiles fades. “He ended up breaking his own heart because he never told her.”

Rangi glares at the ground, wishing she could start a fire instead of having this conversation. “Master Kelsang. My duty is to protect the Avatar. I have no time for-” She stops when Kelsang turns his large body to face her and interrupts her.

“One thing I know about firebenders is their passion. Your feelings aren’t something you can just push down.” Rangi scowls back at him and he barks out a laugh. “You look just like her when she was younger! Goodness knows your mother couldn’t do it either.” The firebender’s eyebrows raise. Her mother couldn’t fully control her emotions? Shove them down until they blinked out of existence? Across the courtyard, Hei-Ran spares the two a quick glance and frowns before returning her attention to Yun.

Kelsang pats Rangi on the back and stretches out before he stands.

“Kyoshi is quite fond of you, too, you know.”

Rangi is left stunned with her mind spinning in five directions at once.

* * *

Loyalty. It’s something that was drilled into Rangi since she was a child, even more so during her formal education. 

She’s not going to make a move. Even if Kyoshi were into girls, even if Kyoshi somehow liked her back (she shudders), she would not act. Her needs, her feelings, her desires don’t matter when her duty is to protect the Avatar. Rangi represents more than just herself. Her every action reflects on her family, and more importantly, the Fire Nation. There is nothing she wouldn’t do to preserve her honor. Serving the Avatar is one of the highest honors that can be bestowed, and she will not deviate from her path. Therefore, her best course of action is to remain diligently the Avatar’s bodyguard, nothing more. There is no option to be a lovestruck girl in the life of a soldier.

It doesn’t matter if her lips tremble when she is done for the day. It doesn’t matter if sleeps restlessly, unable to turn off her thoughts. It doesn’t matter if she wavers for just a quarter of a second, an eternity, and has some semblance of hope when Kyoshi locks eyes with her. It doesn’t matter that Rangi feels her heart crumbling into pieces with every passing day.

* * *

Rangi is sixteen when _Avatar_ Kyoshi takes the _daofei_ oaths in order to receive the training to exact her revenge against Jianzhu. The pain she felt before…that was nothing compared to what she feels now. With every next step Kyoshi makes, with every half-baked and destructive plan, Rangi feels as if a string held with all her strength is being yanked away and there’s nothing she can do to keep holding onto it. It’s killing her to see Kyoshi lost on a path of revenge. The sweet girl she knows is hardening her heart, taking stupid and unnecessary risks, and Rangi feels as if her own heart is being pulverized.

But Rangi is the Avatar’s bodyguard. That hasn’t changed. It’s her job to follow the Avatar’s wishes and keep her safe. Of course, her duties don’t prevent her from speaking her mind because it’s not too late to turn from this path. It’s not too late for Kyoshi to hold onto what makes her so uniquely herself, to what Rangi loves the most about her.

Rangi is about to give up. She doesn’t know how much longer she can handle her heart being wrenched out of her chest and shoved back in. She doesn’t know how much longer Kyoshi can continue along her path of self-destruction. So, belying her years of training to keep a cool head, Rangi performs an act of desperation.

As the others climb up the ladder to meet with Mok, she turns to _lei tai_ platform. She’s been dying inside. It’s about time to show Kyoshi what that looks like on the outside.

* * *

The waves lap at the shore at Yokoya’s port. The ocean breeze lifts the stray strands of hair by Rangi’s ears as she stands on a cliff overlooking the shining body of water. She’s stood there since sunrise after reluctantly maneuvering out of Kyoshi’s arms, leaving her sleeping in the bed. She barely notices the time pass by on this last day in the Earth Kingdom. She scratches at the tuft of half inch spiky hair where her topknot used to be. 

Strong arms envelop her from behind and she feels a nose burrow into the side of her neck. The firebender sighs into Kyoshi’s embrace, relaxing her body and leaning back.

Kyoshi tries to speak before trailing off. “I…” She knows what the other girl wants to say. _I wish you could stay here with me. I wish you could forgive yourself._ But they both know that Rangi must ensure her mother’s health and safety after barely escaping the grip of death.

Rangi continues to stare across the ocean. “I don’t know when we’ll see each other again,” she says. It could be months, years, perhaps never again if they’re so unlucky. The Avatar doesn’t need her bodyguard to keep her alive anymore, though. The firebender is comforted at least by this fact. Kyoshi can take care of herself in a fight…less so when it comes to eating and sleeping.

“Rangi, look at me,” Kyoshi pleads. She can’t do anything except acquiesce. Rangi takes Kyoshi’s scarred hands in her own as she turns around and looks up. The look on Kyoshi’s face almost takes her breath away. Her partner’s eyes gleam with unshed tears, her nose turning red, and her lips trembling. She feels the tremors running through Kyoshi’s body as they pass to hers through their linked hands. 

“We will meet again,” Rangi says firmly. She wills it to happen with everything she has. Kyoshi gulps and nods, tears beginning to stream down her face as they have nightly the previous days. They’ve had hours of hushed conversations the past few days. There are no words left to say…except…

Rangi releases Kyoshi’s hands and draws closer, crushing herself into the other girl’s chest and holding her as tightly as she can. Thank goodness Kyoshi isn’t wearing her chainmail today. Rangi mumbles something into Kyoshi’s chest, making sure that the taller girl can’t quite hear what she’s just said.

Kyoshi holds her just as tightly, one hand cupping the back of Rangi’s head. She leans down to press a reverential kiss to the top of the firebender’s hair.

* * *

Rangi is twenty when she is confronted by her visiting mother. Kyoshi is doing their laundry in another room, her standards for cleanliness too high for the chore to be entrusted to anyone else. Rangi had argued early on that it was unbecoming of the Avatar to do manual labor, _”you’re denser than the earth you bend,”_ but Kyoshi had simply given her a loving smile before returning to the tub of soapy water.

“So,” her mother begins. They sit at the kitchen table together as the afternoon sun shines into the mansion. A partially-played Pai Sho board lies between them. “When will you two wed? You’re about the right age,” her mother states matter-of-factly.

Rangi thinks her eyes must be bulging as she feels heat rise up her face. Her mother looks amused as she remarks, “Now that’s a color I didn’t know you could turn.”

“Wha-I-wed-?!” Rangi manages to sputter out.

Hei-Ran arches an eyebrow. “Full sentences, Captain.” 

Rangi just sits at the table, jaw clenched and lips stuck together as if she were a clam. Her brain seems to have shut down. 

“It’s a great honor, being the spouse of the Avatar,” her mother says sagely. “You would honor our clan as no one has before.” Rangi blinks. Well, at least her body still works. Hei-Ran’s voice softens. “I see the love the two of you have for each other. It reminds me of what your father and I had together.” Her mother looks away for a second before returning. Her mouth curves into a hint of a smirk. “And perhaps the whispers about you being the Avatar’s illicit lover will finally quiet down.”

She’s frozen. Her body doesn’t work. Her mind doesn’t work. Rangi desperately wishes she can combust and enter the Spirit World. Kyoshi’s the Avatar. She can still meet with her there, right? With her final coherent thought she makes a mental note to find a way to keep Kyoshi as quiet as her footsteps…at least when others are around.

Rangi is saved when Kyoshi herself enters the room, wiping the sweat off her forehead with her sleeve. She notices Rangi’s stiff posture immediately. “Is everything okay?”

“Kyoshi, my daughter!” Hei-Ran exclaims with excitement. Rangi adores the smile that appears on her partner’s face whenever her mother refers to her as her daughter and can’t help but smile in response. Her mother takes a confused Kyoshi by the elbows and spins her slowly in a circle. The Avatar turns her head to question Rangi, who somehow blushes more and looks away sheepishly.

Hei-Ran gives her daughter what could be considered a cheeky smile before addressing Kyoshi. “How do you think you’ll look in red and white?”

Rangi thunks her head on the table hard enough to misplace the Pai Sho tiles. Even as Kyoshi runs up and frets about her, she replays the image she’s had in her mind for three years: _the two of them in red and white-or maybe Kyoshi will wear green-overlooking a large banquet on her home island. Gazing into the emerald eyes of the love of her life. Proudly admiring the headdress the taller woman wears bearing the whetstone of her clan. Kissing Kyoshi’s hand the way she had in the Fire Nation stables when they were seventeen, promising to give each other a hard time for as long as they live._

**Author's Note:**

> Y'all, I am Rangshi trash. Some scenes were partially inspired by the amazing Xuroky's art.


End file.
